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Sustainable Food

Run more, eat less, work harder. Every year we make New Year Resolutions and every year studies tell us why we fail them. Yet why, as the midnight bells strike a final goodbye to yester-year, do we promise ourselves that this is the year to make a resolution that lasts? We do it because we want to change.

And change we must do. With increasingly apocalyptic reports on climate one can be forgiven for wanting to draw the curtains and never read the news again. We feel helpless.

Yet we can make a difference. Even simple lifestyle alterations can reduce carbon footprint. So, New Year’s Resolution or not, here are 15 easy ways to become more sustainable in 2015.

I caught my first wild salmon in river Glass, Scotland, at the beginning of October. Although only small, its strength was incredible. I to and fro-ed with the salmon, allowing the fishing line to slacken as the fish pulled away only to reel it back in. Eventually the salmon tired and we scooped its exhausted body into our small wooden boat using a net. A four pounder, I was told. We examined the speckled scales of the gasping fish – a young male – and then we let it go.

Salmon numbers are falling rapidly. Overfishing has been heralded as a major driver of this decline.The catch and release practice in Scotland means that every other salmon caught, starting with the first, is returned to the river to help conserve numbers. Some think that fishing for wild salmon should be banned completely.